Forming healthy habits with help from The New Well

Fri, 03/11/2011 - 7:52amThe Citizen

Each aspect of our lives requires some extent of routine and consistency. We all have habits; some positive and some negative. Forming good habits around food, exercise and relaxation is a critical aspect to lasting, healthy weight loss.

To change your routine (or habit) can take time. Between 18 and 254 days, in fact (Lally et al. 2009). This is a huge variance in time, credited mostly with the levels of complicacy of the task.

How long would it take you to create a habit of planning your healthy meals ahead for every week so you could be prepared and have plenty of enjoyable food options? Or to create a habit of relaxing and reducing stress levels on a regular basis?

Lally et al. found that “performing the behavior more consistently,” especially initially, lent itself to better acceptance and a faster compliancy of the behavior, resulting in a new habit. The wellness world has known this for years. For example, when beginning an exercise program, the first month’s repetition is vital. Setting and maintaining a weekly workout schedule helps boost the likelihood of your success.

Motivation can be key in forming (and in breaking) a habit, as can accountability. The easier it is to do a task, the easier it is to continue the behavior. The New Well offers one-on-one accountability, nutrition, exercise and relaxation in one convenient location. This combination provides you with great tools to assist you in forming healthy habits related to your lasting weight loss success.

How about a challenge? Take one aspect of your life, one thing you would like to be routine (habit) and see how long it takes you to adopt the new behavior. Do you think it will take you 80 days? Can you do it in 25?

Plan for success and continue repeating the behavior. When you create one habit, you’re ready to tackle the next. One day at a time, one step at a time; form a healthy habit.